General Conversation

Yeah, catchy music. I always found Gloam Valley catchy. I played it over a bad luck compilation that I was in once.

I'll reply to all that later, but I just wanted to post something now rather than later cause it sometimes takes me a while to type a reply,lol. And I procrastinate a lot on it.

Currently playing through Code Vein. Might start up Halo 1 (and 3 and Reach). Tried GX again and man, I can't recall how I even managed to do it years ago. I just didn't quite have the same patience...or persistence. Then again the drive is different after story mode is done, and you're trying hard/very hard.

Yep, it'll be crazy by 2030. I wonder what that future holds. I too will be 36 by then and I hope by then I've become pretty successful. Or just mildly successful.

I wanna get a capture card some day, maybe start a small channel or something and play some Gamecube games. Recently I did parsec with a few friends which allowed local multiplayer on emulated games. Was a good time. Currently watching a friend (with others too) play SM64 for the first time. (and the occasional speedrun strats from other friends).

F-Zero: Yeah, kinda crazy that I've been on all my forums for 10 years or more now. Wild to think about...I never thought I'd be on any forum that long,lol.

Spoiler:

Let's make it 20 years.

Yeah, youtube's far too corporate now. Used to be a crazy milestone to have a ton of views, now it's a bit more commonplace. But youtube as a company has certainly changed to be more like a tv network. a lot of the good ones do stuff over on twitch now. At least fact video are fun still.

Indeed, I feel I may've become a more chill person over the years.

Yeah, a friend did a campaign/dnd kinda thing where we had our own characters inserted into the episodes and we derailed things wildly.

Yep, feels like they did. And yeah, sandbird was annoying, but the polluted river one was probably the worst for me.

Ah, interesting.

Yeah, it feels like a ghost has finally been put to rest,and i can move onto other things without thinking about it. I know that probably sounds a bit dramatic when it comes to games but that's how I feel. Also congrats on finishing Morrowind.

Yeah, and airship too. and the four huge materias could be gotten in any order and their respective quests weren't too tough. The side stuff also went by too. D2 did feel like a lot actionwise happened without much fluff in the middle.

Since then,I have purchased it and made it to the first fiery castle place. The first successor boss.


Yeah, I really miss that style. Sonic 06 and probably Shadow and such probably killed their drive to do any more of it due to those being the logical end points of the Adventure style when it got outta hand...but I still miss it though. Reminds me of Zelda/Mario and voice acting, they were scared to do it again due to how poorly received it went.

Yeah, I've heard they're pretty good. Maybe when i finish up the Halo games and Code Vein I'll get to Vesperia.

Yeah, now it's just political ads. Part of me with hair does wanna see how far I can go without cutting it...but I also know taking care of it probably wouldn't be fun,lol.

I think they even did a parody ad with one of those screaming guys.

Yeah, that sounds good. Lots of ammo is always a plus.

Spoiler:

Indeed. I've got a few anime in my backlog til then. I may watch Persona 4's anime since I doubt I'll get around to the game,lol. I do have a Vita though so I guess if I find it cheap,there's nothing stopping me from buying it...I'm probably the one person out there with a Vita that doesn't own Golden.

Also, yeah, 27. I will soon be at that point in my life.


Ah,finally got the post complete.

Well, the next month is gonna be interesting... to say the least, lol.



Not too many new things happened in my world since last month except that I spent lot of time reading news about current events and playing more old school RPGs (well a wildfire did come pretty close to my neighborhood and the last time that happened was almost 10 years ago but everything is fine here). Pretty much finished Serious Sam 4 and did a redemption run of Icewind Dale 2 (which I got completely destroyed when I last tried back when I was 11 lol).

Fzerowii wrote:

Flopsice music was so catchy.  And yeah the days of mkw online are long gone so they feel like forever ago for me.  I even feel like mk 8 feels old now.  The new Mario kart coming out soon seems kinda odd.  I also update d the forum skin

The level I remember the most was when we had to go into Marlee's Mansion, and then somehow manage to work off a debt of 10,000 coins or something, and then she got mad we actually managed to pay it off and just turned into a spider and tried to kill us. I think it's because I got stuck on that one for a while before finally giving up and looking up a walkthrough. I do also remember the last level because they faked me out pretty good in thinking everyone actually died and only Mario was left (silly me I know lol).

Blasar wrote:

Yeah, catchy music. I always found Gloam Valley catchy. I played it over a bad luck compilation that I was in once.

I'll reply to all that later, but  I just wanted to post something now rather than later cause it sometimes takes me a while to type a reply,lol. And I procrastinate a lot on it.

Currently playing through Code Vein. Might start up Halo 1 (and 3 and Reach). Tried GX again and man, I can't recall how I even managed to do it years ago. I just didn't quite have the same patience...or persistence. Then again the drive is different after story mode is done, and you're trying hard/very hard.

Yep, it'll be crazy by 2030. I wonder what that future holds. I too will be 36 by then and I hope by then I've become pretty successful. Or just mildly successful.

I wanna get a capture card some day, maybe start a small channel or something and play some Gamecube games. Recently I did parsec with a few friends which allowed local multiplayer on emulated games. Was a good time. Currently watching a friend  (with others too) play SM64 for the first time. (and the occasional speedrun strats from other friends).

It definitely does have the Super Mario Bros 2 overworld vibes (in meme potential) for sure, lol.

I'm not sure if Code Vein overall is easier than Dark Souls 3 or something or if I just got gud, but it did become pretty easy once you got one of the Queenslayer blood arts that let you attack 5 times in a row pretty much instantly (which translated to a lot of damage if you were using something like a halberd lol). The second to last boss of Code Vein was super hard though. I ended up having to co-op with someone to beat it. The other hard bosses I really had trouble with were early bosses like the pole dancer boss and the moth boss. The former's moveset was mostly made of stuff that could kill you in one hit and the latter would just fly around and spam you with poison attacks. I really hope they make a sequel to it because I want more Anime Darks Souls stuff, lol. Too many VNs and RPGmaker stuff on steam when you search up the anime tag and not enough stuff like Code Vein and God Eater, lol.

I wish there was like an anime shooter or open world game that had the production qualities of Metal Gear Solid 5 or Far Cry or something. There was Genshin Impact that people said was supposedly like Breath of the Wild but that doesn't count because it was one of those p2w gacha games lol. I kinda got bored of that game and quit about 10 hours in because after you're done exploring there's nothing but just grindy dailies and spending real money. At least people made a lot cool fanart of a lot of the characters like Fischl and stuff.

Spoiler:

For me the problem is I find myself taking hours to type up a reply, and the more days that pass by the more I feel obligated to write a longer post, lol. So it's basically a procrastination feedback loop.

I knew I was way more patient at playing games in the past (most people say their younger selves are more patient), but sometimes I wonder if I was smarter/attentive at playing games when I was younger too. There were some really hard/complex games (think adventure/mystery games like Myst/Lighthouse/Nancy Drew) I managed to beat as a kid that I know I wouldn't have been able to do if I only started playing it now. Not sure what causes this phenomenon if it's really the case. I don't think it's a case of video games making us dumb in the sense of it actually lowering our IQ, but maybe it's our serotonin receptors being completely fried from playing games for almost two decades so it's harder to concentrate or find enjoyment out of certain stuff.

I do hope we won't be just repeating 2020 for the next 10 years. Remember when they said like the lockdown stuff would only last for 2 months? Look where we are now, lol.



But I do try not to overthink it too much, you know, hakuna mata and all and stuff. By 2030 I still kinda wanna move to Taiwan or something and hope I'm more successful too.

Playing old games > playing new games, lol. If I ever wanted to do let's plays I'd play old games, don't care if nobody watches, if I get anyone who watches I'd rather them want to watch me play old games or stuff I want to play than watch me because I was chasing the latest fad lol. Imagine being the guy who forces himself to play fad games like Fall Guys or Among Us and has to constantly move on to the next game when it dies in like a month in order to be "relevant". I'd almost feel bad for that guy except I don't at all lol.

Blasar wrote:

Spoiler:

Imagine if we really go for 20 years and then we end up outliving all the other corporate sites like youtube and reddit (either closing their doors or going the way of Myspace). Youtube can't kill off the Dreamcast/Gamecube/Xbox360 generations with algorithms/censorship/demonetization, they were there before youtube was born and will be there after it finally dies (in its attempt to become Cable TV).

It's definitely way too corporate now. Nobody is stopping all of these youtubers from going to a different site (and giving potential competitors desperately needed relevance). By continuing to stay they're just part of the problem.

If I'm being really introspective on this I do remember I used to make a ton of brash/snarky posts in 2010. Nowadays whenever I see snarkiness in a post (warranted or not) I instantly picture the poster being some 17 year old compensating for their own shortcomings in life by acting as if they had something to prove. Viewing snarky/rude posts that way, I can't help but find it funny (which is probably the exact opposite of what they wanted to come off as lol). That's one behavior I am definitely glad I stopped doing early on lol. All part of the process of becoming a more chill person I guess.

Thanks. It might sound dramatic describing it as putting a ghost to rest, but I guess there aren't many other ways to describe it, especially since it was really satisfying to finally finish it. I guess we could say it feels good to stop procrastinating on finishing a game you wanted to set out to finish, but then we'd be making it sound boring... like we were doing it against our will like homework or something.

Yeah it probably killed their drive for sure, with how Sonic Forces was received though, it would be a good time to do a “return to form” to that type of gameplay. Sorta how Resident Evil Revelations 1 and 2 were kind of a return to form to the earlier Resident Evil games after the backlash of Resident Evil 6 and stuff. But now I think they just gave up on making “regular” Sonic games entirely at this point lol. Maybe we'll see the Yakuza developers make a Sonic game instead and see what they end up with, because the director of the Yakuza games said he'd be down for making a Sonic game recently, lol.

Wait I remember that polluted level in Sunshine, lol. If you're talking about this level in Bianco Hills where the entire lake was poisoned, I think the biggest insult to injury on that level was that after you spent so much time trying to get around that water, you had to do a subspace level on top of it and it was one of the longer/harder ones to boot, lol.

If they really did do a parody commercial on Serious Sam I wanna see it because that sounds hilarious, lol. We need more commercials like that instead.

I bought Persona 4 Golden Edition back in early August and at this point I still only got to the part where the main character went through the TV and finally got his persona. I'm not sure if the introductory chapter of that game is just that slow or if my brain is just fried like I mentioned, lol.

Same. Still waiting on the magical age where I transform into a sage that spits out nuggets of wisdom like the movies told me I would turn into when I get older lol. Like some kind of Shaolin Monk or Karate Dojo Master lol. If I don't get that by the time I'm 40 I wanna go to the theater and demand a refund for all the money I spent watching movies, assuming theaters are even a viable business model at this rate.

Spoiler:

A sentient bread killing itself is definitely on the weirder side of anime and sums up this year perfectly... and I love it, lol.

Greetings from Next Month.



Ah. Stay safe. My month hasn't been much besides playing Code Vein,and Genshin Impact. Well,also the past month or two had me watch all the Persona games,and Yakuza games. I may pick up 360 games again or maybe some PS4 downloaded games I have. Or dig out the Dreamcast. Or focus on finishing up some WiiU Zelda stuff like Wind Waker and BOTW, and probably Ocarina.

Ha, yeah, finding the secret money stash. Though I think some players have done it legit and the ending is still the same. Yep, that final level was quite the suprise. Sammer Guy kingdom was surprising too, watching the world just end and become a white void. I also recall the caveman level where it turned out the plant enemies weren't actually bad,just rebelling against the cavemen encroaching/polluting. I remember playing it over a Mario Kart bad luck compilation that I had a clip in,lol.

Ah, stripper boss and this one guard boss in a cave really killed me when it came to finishing them. Yeah, it didn become a bit easier after getting the queenslayer blood code. Right now I'm at the fire cat boss, but that's where I opted to take a break and play Genshin. I think it ended up being more difficult at times because I'm not used to Dark Souls type games.

Yeah, I wish there were more anime games out there that aren't just RPGs/fantasy. A gun/stealth game could be a lot of fun. I played it for a while but then I just sorta got tired of it. I did however roll for the characters I wanted and got them. Mostly I'm just gonna finish the prologue and be done, and pick it up when my friend's able to play co-op. And yeah, I'm really fond of Genshin's characters and the fanart they get.

Yeah, I tend to get in a loop of "I should write  a reply" until it's like 10+ days after I've seen it.

Indeed. I take a break/stop way easier than I used to when I was younger. I ponder that too, since I go back to some old games and wonder "How did I do this back then?".

We're in month 9 of week 2 of flattening the curve,lol. But yeah, I hope I'll be successful in the next 10 years, even if it's minor success. I'm still finding my way in the world I guess.



Same. I enjoy playing what I like, and I'd be really burnt out if I played the newest fad games. Especially since a lot . Yeah, Fall Guys died in like a month,lol. Plus I have a unique history gaming wise so it'd be fun to share what I love with people.

Yeah, we may end up outliving a lot of sites probably. Certain ones almost seemed like pillars and then they were just gone, kinda like some of those hundred year old companies. Yeah, there isn't much stopping creators from forcing change,but they just don't. And yeah, Dreamcast'll never die!

Yeah, I used to be a bit more hot headed back then.  Not that I don't still have my moments, but it really takes a lot to push me to actually being angry on the internet and real life . (Ok except for BS stuff in games, I do still get annoyed by those.). And sometimes I see people that remind me of myself and I know how to make things chill again.

Yeah, it's like a ghost finally getting to rest peacefully.  It's a satisfying feeling.

Yeah, which was interesting after Mania. I kinda expected Adventure game remasters,what with Crash, Spyro and Mario getting remakes/remasters. Oh? He did. I didn't really know,so I'd hope to see it.

Oh, there's that one. I just run to the cliff windmill and do a leap of faith to the log and go there. The one I'm talking about involves getting Yoshi, riding a gondola or two to an island to dissolve the pipe jelly, then doing a red coin poison river level.

Ah, here it is.

Spoiler:

Ah,lol. I have a few games where I just slowly complete a bit whenever I feel the urge to play them.

Well, if Yakuza is anything to go by, I should be pretty good at fighting off people in the streets.

Blasar wrote:

Spoiler:

Heh, Merry Christmas, in case you happen to read this sometime after Christmas, lol :p

Thanks, it got pretty bad where I lived during that month, nothing like having to wear an N95 mask indoors to stop breathing in smoke or whatever ash particles there were on that day. There's sites with maps of wildfires in California, and it was basically burning at the neighborhood across the street. Good thing most fires have a hard time jumping over roads, lol.

Ah, nice. I played the new Yakuza game, Yakuza 7 (aka Yakuza Like a Dragon), and I think I'd easily put it up there as my favorite storywise, second only to Yakuza 0's story. I think it ought to be a textbook example that everyone should look to when it comes to properly introducing a new likeable main character to a franchise while properly paying respects to all the characters that came before it. Nowadays too many writers think the way to introduce a new character is to make them better than everyone else while making all the established characters look bad or outright disrespecting the old characters by killing them off in unceremonious ways.



You're in for some fun with the next boss if you just got done with the Fire Cat/Yakumo's Girlfriend (or sister I forgot lol) boss lol. (If you're at that point you probably know who the guy you're gonna fight is because the game told you who the main villain you needed to stop was by that point, or so I think). It honestly made the final boss seem really easy, lol. I actually also had a really hard time with that particular boss (also I never really did a true solo playthrough of Dark Souls either, I ended up having to co-op a lot of hard fights in that game with the friend who roped me into buying the game).  

I stopped playing after I got to Adventurer Rank 20 because there wasn't much to do in the game as a whole after you explored everywhere, and I got the characters I wanted too (trying to get new ones by picking up enough currency to get more wishes took too long). I guess based on how I stopped hearing about the game entirely at this point, I think my thoughts about it weren't in the minority. 

One good thing I can say about the game is I really enjoyed the map because of how unique it felt compared to other open world maps (that mountain/plateau region where was worth going there for the sightseeing value alone). Every region felt like it had it's own special landmarks and was super recognizable compared to other parts. By comparison, I finally got around to playing Far Cry 5 this month, and to be honest, I can't really remember any unique landmarks that stood out to me at all. The problem with making really big open worlds is that unless you have the time to really add detail and unique landmarks all the areas just end up looking the same and forgettable. All I remember is me driving a motobike down long highways with endless pine trees and occasionally blowing up trucks with RPGs, lol.

Spoiler:

Doesn't matter though, got more pics of fanart, lol.

Also there's this too, lol:

Spoiler:

An Anime Deus Ex or Cyberpunk gun/stealth game is something that ought to be explored more. A game with the character artstyle of Genshin Impact and the setting and gameplay of Cyberpunk/Deus Ex isn't actually crazy as one might think. Reason #1 being you can have anime settings in dystopian futures (e.g. Pyschopass, Ghost in the Shell, and most Mecha Animes) and #2 because not being tied down to a more realistic artstyle would allow someone to come up with more interesting ways to make an FPS/stealth game interesting. I wanna see the usual magicians in isekai fantasy animes carry around laser blasters and lightsabers, lol. Think Dishonored, but instead of mixing grimdark fantasy magic and steampunk, we mix konosuba magic and cyberpunk together lol.



Reason #3 is I will probably never actually get to play Cyberpunk even though it's out because nothing can actually run that game properly atm, lol.

Spoiler:

Yeah, I know right? lol.

When it comes to patience and concentration, I've tried my best to go back to playing games with a similar playstyle I had as a kid... just to see if I would be able to exact more enjoyment out of them. This included like personal rules like no sprinting nonstop from point a to b, no fast traveling, only taking roads to destinations if driving a car (and not offroading straight to the destination if the compass points to it), no staring at the minimap (and turning it off if possible), having only one active quest at a time, and taking slower and wider pans of the camera to take in the scenery. I'm not sure if the deprogramming attempt was successful or not though because it would probably take more time to undo almost 12 years of habits, lol.



At this point it's clear none of this is working anyways. If I was made dictator for a day, I'd declare it's time to reopen everything and but make masks mandatory. Because before we have problems with people getting sick everyone will be out of their homes because they don't have jobs to pay the property taxes anymore (and then they'll get sick anyway they have no home to obey stay at home orders lol). I still wanna move to Taiwan within the next 10 years (especially since everything is open there and pretty much nobody is sick) lol.

I know that fad games like Fall Guys and Among Us will exist so long as there are glory seekers seeking the subs and views, but it's gotten to the point where I reflexively go "oh I bet it's another fad game, I'm not buying it" whenever I hear about any new releases now. Won't be healthy for gaming if every dev is now incentivized to make the next fad game in hopes of being the lucky one who strikes it rich, especially won't be good for people making vids or streams who want to not just play only fad games lol.

Long live forums and the Dreamcast. We'll be here ahead of the curve when forums make their inevitable resurgence... just like Minecraft sort of made one in 2020, lol.

Yeah, I basically went from Jotaro from Season 3 to Jotaro in Season 4 and 5, lol. Pretty much nothing game related can make me mad, and rude people I can tune out way easier. I credit this to being more secure about my self-worth and not feeling threatened by anything so I can spend time being positive and chill about stuff.



Yeah, maybe it was just an offhanded comment saying they're just open to the idea and nothing is planned, but who knows, maybe we'll actually get a Sonic game by the Yakuza devs one day and hopefully it will be good.

Oh, I don't remember that mission, but it sounds painful, lol. (I think it's cause Yoshi faints if he get exposed to water in Sunshine iirc)

Hah, RIP Brett Sanderson the Kamikaze, lol.

One common theme of the Yakuza games is that even if you're old, your best days are still always ahead of of you and are never over (the protagonists are always beating up punks who think just because we're old they are better than us lol). I think it's a pretty nice uplifting message.

Heh, Merry Christmas, in case you happen to read this sometime after Christmas, lol :p

Heh, I about replied to it on Christmas itself, but it was a bit hectic.

Oh. Damn. Stay safe there. All I have to deal with is snow, and the occasional thunderstorm/windstorm.

Yeah, I think they really did well introducing him and the cast. They were respectful to what came before. So it's pretty heartwarming to see Ichiban be well received. Related but I saw in Ace Attorney Investigations 2,there's a chef guy that looks like Ichiban and even spent 18 years in jail.

Ah, well the stripper boss was really difficult at the one point in the game,and the one random one in the cave later on. I need to focus on Code Vein again but I have been busy lately.

I think I'm to rank 26-30, but after I finished the prologue and kinda just stopped. I did however get pretty much every character I wanted, I got pretty lucky on the draw.

Yeah, the landmarks/areas have been pretty memorable so far.  

Indeed, it's nice to see tons of fanart.

Yes

Spoiler:

Yeah, I'm trying to think of some futureistic games with a sorta style like that,I remember there being one that was a bit like Rising actually,but I can't recall the name. I'd love to see more "softer" style applied to some futuristic games. Breath of the Wild is halfway there,with mechs and motorcycles.  It'd be fun to see an isekai where someone ends up in some future world.



I heard it's running pretty well on Stadia at least,lol. For anyone that owns a Stadia. (which happens to be one friend)

When it comes to patience and concentration, I've tried my best to go back to playing games with a similar playstyle I had as a kid... just to see if I would be able to exact more enjoyment out of them. This included like personal rules like no sprinting nonstop from point a to b, no fast traveling, only taking roads to destinations if driving a car (and not offroading straight to the destination if the compass points to it), no staring at the minimap (and turning it off if possible), having only one active quest at a time, and taking slower and wider pans of the camera to take in the scenery. I'm not sure if the deprogramming attempt was successful or not though because it would probably take more time to undo almost 12 years of habits, lol.

Yes. Undoing old gaming habits is pretty hard, and it's sometimes difficult when a game doesn't share the same control scheme as most other games, or doesn't  have the same quality of life features I've gotten use to.

Yeah,I've heard they've had few cases, a few other countries were like that.

Yeah, so many new games fall into that catagory, so hopefully devs don't get involved in chasing fads.

Yes, lol. Or certain games when they get a remake.

That's a pretty good comparison.

Yeah, it'd be nice to see.

Indeed it is,it's infamous. Actually the Yoshis dissolve.

Indeed, that's a pretty good message to have.

Happy New Year. Here's to 2021 being good for all of us.

Blasar wrote:

Happy New Year. Here's to 2021 being good for all of us.

Yeah, happy new years to all of us. January so far has been okay for me. Hopefully the rest of 2021 isn't just 2020+1.

Now I wonder if linking discord links as images works or if you've been seeing just broken urls from me lol. Cause I actually just see a broken URL for (https://cdn.discordapp.com/avatars/239683260664250368/0c7170e96c6988dcf860e8abb9e0ad79.png) and copy pasting it into my browser gives me nothing, lol.

Blasar wrote:

Spoiler:

Heh, I think the worst is over. The weather has been okay so far for both December and Janurary. I was getting 40mph winds like every other day for all of December though, lol. :p

Yeah lol. The game felt different in the sense it was an RPG, but story and character-wise it was a good Yakuza game. I look forward to seeing more of Ichiban whenever Yakuza 8 (or whatever it may be called) comes out. Also it was good as turn based RPG too lol. Too many of those RPGs where you only control one character while everyone is auto-controlled like in FFXIII lol. I remember when everyone universally panned the system used in FFXIII, but fast forward to today, it seems every other JRPG game uses it lol. So I like how in Yakuza 7 I can properly command and control everyone like a JRPG should let you lol.

That and the music for most of the game is great

Spoiler:

Good music is to be is expected for a Yakuza game but I really liked this boss theme in particular lol.
10/10 would headbang while fighting the boss again lol.

Spoiler:

That and we have the new best bar theme... for when you're drinking alone and unsure whether things will work out well or not lol.

Yeah, I was at like rank 20 before I stopped back in the game first came out (sometime around when i rescued that dragon Dvalin). To conclude, Genshin Impact's game world and it's landmarks feel like they would be better if it were used in a true rpg or an old school zelda game (true rpg or zelda game in the sense of giving out sidequests that give you party members or new gear to use like bombs and boomerangs and not just gacha money).

Spoiler:

I did try playing it again recently though and got to rank 25 and even got the newest 5 star character (Ganyu) though, lol.



It is nice to see indeed since the fanart is better than the game lol.

Wait BoTW has motorcycles? That's pretty cool, lol.

Ah so you haven't finished the game yet, lol. If you're talking about that Samurai Boss (Gilded Hunter) he was pretty hard for sure. Even after I got spoiled the secret to his super phase before beating him, it was still pretty hard lol. You're actually like 3/4th's done with the game if you're at that point lol. For me I was playing a game called Caligula Effect Overdose and another game called Grim Dawn (which is like the Diablo games and Torchlight games) lol,

Spoiler:

The game did get tedious at a lot of places, but I did like the gameplay enough so I managed to finish it. That and I really liked the soundtracks in it. Grim Dawn on the other hand is definitely one of my new favorite games lol.

A isekai protagonist getting whisked into a futurstic cyberpunk setting would be an interesting take as a whole. The setting to keep magic and everything there while having cool monofilament wires and flying cars would be easy enough. For example, we could have a jrpg world that skipped the middle ages and went right into space/cyberpunk age or something. I do know Shadowrun did have magic and cyberpunk fused into it's worldbuilding sort like what just I described. But at it's core it's still mainly a regular dystopian cyberpunk world at heart (if you don't count the magic spells, elves, orks, eldritch beings, and trolls that is), so it's pretty different than what I envision from combining the two genres.

Heh, the irony when the Stadia of all things seems to end up running Cyberpunk beter than the other stuff. (still not gonna go get one though). I do feel bad for whoever bought the game in it's current state, but maybe it'll get fixed later. :p

Yeah, no kidding, it's really hard for me to undo those things now. Sometimes I wonder at this point, given my gaming habits, if I'd really notice the difference or care if the towns and forests of say, Assassin's Creed or Monster Hunter World was just replaced with blue and red legos or styled like cp_orange custom maps in Team Fortress 2. I say this because nowadays I feel like I only see and sense polygons and shapes and not actual buildings or a world I can immerse myself in when it comes to a lot of games, lol. I want my brain to go back to registering these things as actual buildings and lands and not just cubes for me to climb and jump on darn it lol.



I guess you could call copying COD and World of Warcraft for the past decade a "fad" too. But "fad games" in the sense of games where you get/pay(?) streamers to play your game and promote it to all the preppy kids trying to fit in is a relatively new phenomenon, lol. To be honest I don't care much for that kind of streamer culture, games I like or otherwise, lol

The other problem besides instinctively reacting to any new games as "fad" games, is now I almost always say no to buying new games to play with people unless it's clear they are really into playing it. I'm always saying "no because we both know you'll get bored in a week and stop playing"

New lore: In alternate universe #900001 where Flowey stops wanting to kill (or be killed) everyone, he turned into a Howdy, lol.

Now I remember. It never made sense to me for Yoshi to dissolve outside of gameplay purposes cause in Yoshi's Story, Yoshi could swim just fine, lol. Unless similar things happened in the "main" Mario games. Could have just made him not be able to jump in water so if he gets stuck in water he's stuck there and you just have to get another one, at least to be consistent lol. :p

I do wish more games had a similar overall message like that, how no matter how old you get your best years are never behind you and all. A theme like that is way more positive (since it feels like a way more realistically attainable goal) than saving the world and stopping god from destroying the world through the power of love or something lol. Oh this guy is the chosen one who inherited special powers and destined to stop the big bad guy from this prophecy (and get a big harem doing it)? Well that's nice, sucks for everyone else who wasn't born with overpowered abilities though, I guess they get to keep bagging groceries for the rest of their life. Here in Yakuza though, it doesn't matter if you've been in jail for 20 years of your youth, you can always turn life around and be a winner (and don't let any young upstart tell you otherwise cause what do they know, and who cares what they think, they're talking a lot of trash considering I'm standing right next to this bike lol).

Sorry I've been absent. Been so busy irl and I'm always watching streamers on twitch. Maybe one day I can afford an el gato capture card and I can stream again but yeah I can't believe it's already 2021. This website keeps getting older and older lol

Dahboo4 wrote:

Sorry I've been absent.  Been so busy irl and I'm always watching streamers on twitch.  Maybe one day I can afford an el gato capture card and I can stream again but yeah I can't believe it's already 2021.  This website keeps getting older and older lol

I see. For me school started again. And it kinda sucks, lol.



A New Year is good. But thanks to school New Years Eve to me is symbolic of: "Okay you saw the fireworks and the year on the PC change in the bottom right corner now get back to work/school", lol. It's kind of like trying to enjoy your last day of bail before the sentencing hearing or something (okay that's just hyperbolic, but someone should mandate 2 extra weeks of vacation after New Years)

Christmas > New Years lol.

Yeah, 2021 and the forum hosting is still going strong thankfully. This new skin looks better than the old one I think.

That sucks. I can only imagine what college is like now. I got my 4 year in august and I'm so glad most of my college years didn't involve this virus. And me too. I finally found a decent one. Most of them suck imo. I just wish the year would show on the date on posts.

Yeah all of this school stuff just sucks. Even before any of this virus stuff it was still trash or at best tolerable at times (some professors I had in my undergrad university were cool but the ones in the school i'm in now almost all sucked). Makes you wonder if all that junk about college life you see on TV and what other people said is just a caricature the same way romcom animes portray japanese high school life, lol (as in doesn't actually happen or is only experienced by less than 1% of the people who go there like that). Good to know you're pretty much done with school too. It'll be my last year doing any school or college stuff too. Then I can move to Taiwan or something because it would be a nice change of scenery... that and I mentioned I wanted to do that all the way back in 2014 lol.



This current skin is the best one I think so far yeah. I can actually see the text below our avatars/usernames in this one and the color scheme is actually good.

Hm, doesn't show up for me.

Oof. Soudns rough. Well, lots of blizzards have happened recently.

Indeed. It's an RPG but it does things way differently. And yeah, it has some pretty fire music. I like listening to it.  I'm glad to see Yakuza 7 doing really well.

Hehe. Yeah.

Certainly, I''d be inevesting a lot more time in it if the gacha part of it was replaced with sidequests/etc. I bowed out after rescuing the dragon as well.

Ah. I really hoped to get her before her release,but I hadn't played in so long that I missed the event period. I was a bit bummed out. I do still have a bunch of characters I got lucky with like Fischl,Beidou,Ningguang, and Xinyan. I do hope she'll be part of an unlockable quest later so I can get a chance at getting her.

Spoiler:

The bike is DLC I believe, but for the post game. Though someone made a kart track with mods.

Spoiler:

I am slowly getting further in the game. Defeated the desert zone, and Master of the Throat, and have partnered up with Eve, and got a solid chunk of the dark dimension/castle done. Was worried about a point of no return so I didn't quite do the one gate. It also took me a bit to finally figure out accessories n such so I finally made a character that looked as how I intended originally.

Though I have been distracted by playing Blaster Master Zero with three files, and watching shows with the Roku, and such.

It'd be a unique concept, and you could reallly go anywhere with it. Not that you can't with fantasy...but there's just a lot of tropes they fall into. Not that cyberpunk doesn't, but I just see a lot more of the same with fantasy. Heck, even just getting isekai'd to a modern parallel world could create fun stuff,maybe it developed differently,etc. Sliders is a 90s tv show that plays with that concept,like "What if England won, what if Communism won,what if this person survived/etc".

Ah,what Shadow Run does? I know Phantasy Star does a bit of a mix of stuff, I know there's one game that goes from a medieval era, to futuristic times in one game. There's even a game where you play a few generations. Shadow Run. I may have to look into it.
Maybe. No Man Sky had a turnaround, though, it didn't have a lot of actual technical issues and the team put their nose to the grindstone to deliver everything promised. To be fair though, they had lost work in a flood.


(Phantasy Star 2)

Spoiler:

Unrelated Music Break.

Ah,lol. I know for racing games for me, while I've mellowed out with my aggressive driving in the games, I still like to push other cars and wreck them. But only really in arcade games.
Indeed. If the streamer enjoys the game,that's fine, but if it's a fad of the week,it can be annoying. Especially if I like a series of videos they make but they get caught up in the new game.

Yeah, I like to put more stake in games I know I'll enjoy, and maybe even years down the road have that feeling of "I wanna play this again.". I haven't bought a multiplayer game in a while, because the consoles require services now and I'm afraid I'm still stubborn on that front,lol.



They were probably too lazy, or rushing so much to even including swimming Yoshi, in Galaxy 2, Yoshi ends up swimming just fine iirc.

Yeah, it's a message more people need. Kind of one I need sometimes. And yeah, it is a more attainable goal, since it's one many in reality achieved. Like Colonel Sanders was in his 50s and 60s before he hit it big with KFC, so, it's never too late to find success.  Respect your elders, especially when they're in range of bikes.

I always notice the posts quickly,but it takes me days/weeks to actually get around to writing a reply,lol. And sorry for the large images, I know there's a way to change the image sizes,but it tends ot be tedious. Also, new layout!


Oh hey, it's nearly Valentines Day. Here's some Valentines Gardevoirs!

I'm soooo excited for the new mario golf game! It's almost as awesome as a new fzero game. I'm playing TT right now to celebrate

Sorry I haven't been around in a while. Things could be better where I'm at. School has made me super busy for most of the first half of the year, had to arrange a bunch of things in order to move back home all summer, and well... my uncle died.

Hopefully things are going okay where you guys are at though. At least it seems almost everything is open again for now and doesn't seem to be closing up again (or at least, most people will just go out and stay open anyways if they do try to close everything down again hopefully).

Dahboo4 wrote:

I'm soooo excited for the new mario golf game! It's almost as awesome as a new fzero game. I'm playing TT right now to celebrate

Heh, have fun playing it now that it's out. It looks pretty cool, lol.

We've really gone a long way since the good old days of Wii Sports golf.

Blasar wrote:

Spoiler:

Doesn't show up, yeah. I'm guessing it's that old issue with direct links sometimes. Reminds me of in 2006 where I'd just link images from google images, I'd be able to see them, but other people on the forum I posted them on got mad at me for trolling, saying I didn't post anything and they were invisible. So early on I'd know to always use image hosting sites lol.

Seeing Yakuza 7 be this successful and be considered GOTY makes me happy for the devs/series. I do like how the game tried to incorporate some of the aspects of the previous games into it's turn based combat (the QTEs and the timed blocks/critical hits). I went back and played Yakuza 4 and 5 also, 4 was mostly unplayable because of memory leaks and microstutter (and eventually I had to give in and just watch the final chapter on youtube), but 5 ran perfectly fine for me. One of the characters that became my new favorite was Shun Akiyama and stuff. I hope that he shows up in also along with Ichiban when Yakuza 8 eventually comes out.

I do think you were pretty smart to bow out after the Dragon story arc of Genshin, just because there wasn't really that much at the end of the journey. At some point, contrary to what I said before, I decided to come back and gave Genshin a second chance and finished the rest of the story (including the recent update where they added a feudal japan themed island). And then after that I played the game probably to the point beyond diminishing returns. I can't say the game wasn't good because I spent a lot of time on it cause I did have fun to be fair. It was fun for me to get overpowered compared to when I first started (Fischl, Beidou, Ningguang were actually characters I made overpowered with their gear/artifacts lol. But I guess looking back there were other better games I could have spent my time on instead).

I think the big problem is that once you finish all the story, there isn't much to do except for the daily quests. Would I have done it again if I knew this would be what the game would be after finishing all the story? Not sure, probably not. Nowadays though I feel like I have all but quit the game. Sometimes I don't even feel like getting on it even for like 10 minutes to get daily quest gems.

Spoiler:

I'll probably still check on the fan-art and memes every so often though.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1034900/Blaster_Master_Zero/

I thought Blast Master Zero was an old game, but it's actually a recent game, nice

Blasar wrote:

Spoiler:

Yeah long story short, less tropes = better, lol. Characters getting sent to a modern parallel world like in that show Sliders you mentioned would be a more engaging idea. Real life Lore > D&D/Isekai Lore lol.

It's said one reason we keep seeing the same fantasy isekais with the same tropes is not necessarily just because that's what sells among the masses but largely because the Light Novel writers draw their inspiration from other Light Novel writers, so they all end up inevitably being similar to each other. So perhaps the reason we haven't seen an isekai in a modern parallel world could possibly be because it hasn't crossed their mind. The same has also been said to have happened for games and movies too. In the past, writers used to draw inspiration from history, books, or events, but now they just draw from other games or movies (or god forbid, what they read on social media), so they end up being the same.

Perhaps that's the reason behind the itching feeling in the back of my head that the current generation of consoles doesn't feel like an actual era but just a perpetual extension of the PS4/Xbox One/Switch Era of 2013. It doesn't feel like a distinct jump compared to say... the N64 generation to the Gamecube generation because... writing and creative wise... gaming has low key been stuck in 2013.

Shadowrun was an NES game originally. It's said the devs were basically making it at the same time as the original Cyberpunk NES game, but Cyberpunk ended up releasing first, so Shadowrun decided to mix fantasy elements into it's dystopian cyberpunk world to distinguish it from NES Cyberpunk so people didn't accuse it of copying NES Cyberpunk. I never did play the original NES game, but I played Shadowrun Returns, Shadowurn Dragonfall, and Shadowrun Hong Kong, they were turned based RPG/tactics games. I never knew that about the Phantasy Star games. It seems to have pretty interesting lore in that case.



Some music in there is also actually pretty relaxing too as well. I took a lot of good naps to the first two tracks in the background, lol.



Same with Persona 5's soundtrack, lol. Although that one is a game I will probably never get to play at this rate (since I don't feel like buying a specific console just for one game). Same with Judgement 1 and 2 (the spinoff series of the Yakuza games). Perhaps my late discovery of this OST this is a sign I should finally finish Persona 4 though, before the new semester buries me in work again.

Exactly, Colonel Sander's story of rag to riches is more inspiring of a message for the same reason Ichiban's story was inspiring. We need less stories like the MCU where super talented people with superpowers who are different than everyone else and were already set for life become heroes, and more average joes who rise to the top and become heroes, lol.

Ichiban's Karaoke theme song even basically encompasses what we were talking about, lol.

Time really flew fast, from Valentine's day to now. Now it's September, it will be October before we know it, lol. I just hope by the time December comes around in a blink of an eye I will finally be done and finally graduate from school. Because if I don't pass my classes I'll probably have to go back to Boston in person (and all the effort I took to arrange me being able to go home and study at home remotely will have been for nothing)

Also, this post says I posted this on February 13th for some reason, weird, lol.

Heh. It's been a while. Kinda forgot how to log in for a bit. Anyways.

Yeah, the success with Yakuza 7 is heartwarming, especially with how readily people accepted Ichiban. Like Yakuza 7 on paper sounds like it would be a disaster, new protagonist, new gameplay style, first dub since 1, etc. But it all turned out well.

Akiyama, yeah, he's a great character. He's voiced by the actor for Spike Spiegel.  

Yeah, it's hard to jump back into Genshin but I still check up on the memes every now and then.. Funnily I booted it up recently and I was in the cold mountains and chased by enemies...so I kinda just shut it off because I guess past me decided to leave me in a tough situation.

Blaster Master Zero is fun, and it has two sequels & a spinoff. I have all the DLC and have a few ongoing runs between em. Though one or two bosses have given me trouble so I haven't exactly finished any runs. (there's a later boss that involves platforming outside the tank but falling kills you.)

Beaten a lot of games lately, and replayed a few. More than a decade after the hype for Black and White's leadup, I finally played and beat it. It has a bunch of lil details I liked, but still kinda falls into the same formula. But I did start up BW2, but kinda got sidetracked by other games. Also finally played Mother 3, a solid first chapter, but I have kind of trailed off again. Solid spritework and soundtrack. Now all I need to do is watch Durarara to finish that mini-bucket list of sorts. (Those things I didn't jump into back on mkwii but should've.)

Yeahe, perhaps that happens when a type of media goes on for a long enough time. That might be why there's a trend of media nostalgic for the 80s. (I did end up finishing all of Sliders, kinda got a bit wild near the end with the invaders plot, replacement of characters and sorta beginning to parody popular 90s movies. Recently I've been sharin 90s n 2000s movies with friends, and it has been fun to see their reactions, both to the good, and bad ones.

I hope Ichiban never loses his optimism. (That reminds me that there has been some news about Yakuza 8, not sure when it's on the way but they shared a few screens.)

Mario Golf? Hm, I was surprised they released a new Mario Strikers game recently, and are releasing 48 tracks for MK8.


(I played some Gex last month) (Also replayed Billy Hatcher and SPM more recently.)
I have the Phantasy Star games on the PS2 collection so it could be fun to play them.

No matter how time flies, no matter the gap, the conversation will continue.

Hah, all roads lead back to this corner of the internet lol :p

Well, I hope you're doing better than I am right now. I wish I could say life has been going well for me. I've been having a ton of eye floaters show up in my eyes (worried it might be a sign I'm going blind or something, I guess if I ever stop showing up here then it's a safe bet that's probably what ended up happening). And my mom is dealing with stage 4. It's not all doom and gloom on my end though. I did finally graduate with my Masters Degree.

Spoiler:

^ this music is kind of fitting and what played in my head after I got my degree since after so long, I'm finally free to do whatever I want in my life lol (in the context of the game's story it fits perfectly too)

Funny enough, speaking of Spike Spiegel, I actually started watching Cowboy Bebop this week, lol. I can't believe I never got around to watching it until now. It's exactly the type of anime that I enjoy watching lol.

Ah, nice nice. Grats on finally finishing those games.

Spoiler:

I played a lot of games too to forget about life for a while lol. I finally got past chapter 5 of VA-11 HALL-A after not playing it in forever. And stuff like Atelier Sophie 2 and Elden Ring were really fun. Not many open world games can keep me engaged anymore. But Elden Ring managed to, lol.



One thing I also really liked about this summer was how suddenly Metal Gear Rising memes became so popular again lol. The game was always great and I'm glad it got so much time in the spotlight.

Spoiler:

One other thing I did for 6 months was raid with 7 other people in FF14. We did beat the whole tier (in that MMO's there's a series of 4 hard bosses every few months, and that group of bosses is called a tier), but I wanted to quit and announced I left after we beat the last boss. I wanted to stop playing because at some point it got kind of repetitive and not fun (think waiting for the professor to keep explaining something to the slowest person in the class, except now you aren't allowed to pass the class until that slow person gets it lol, that's what it was like in practice). Plus the problem with eye floaters seemed to get worse every time I played so I was basically playing myself to death lol). I guess it was fun actually trying it out just for the novelty of it? But for me doing it wasn't as fun as it was hyped up to be and I can't recommend people do it in good faith lol.

We like to look at animes and other people tell their stories of MMOs I guess and we get the idea that's it's really fun and that you're missing out if you you're not doing it. But in reality it isn't that fun lol. It's like how the media portrays Christmas I guess. The TV likes to hype up the idea that entire families get together, eat turkey, buy a bunch of presents and get excited for more presents, and if your Christmas isn't like the Christmas they show on TV then something must be wrong with your life. But that's not true I would say. I'd rather play coop in a game like Divinity Original Sin 2 or Baldur's Gate 3 or something lol (or even play actual D&D with some people, I actually did that recently after never doing it before and it was actually as fun as people make it out to be, lol)

Yeah, that's probably the reason why. Old school games and shows have heart in them too I would say. That's why I feel like I still feel something when I play and watch them, lol.

I hope Ichiban never loses his optimism too. I should definitely try be the optimistic man he showed us we can be lol. (I just hope I can still see stuff by the time Yakuza 8 comes out lol.)



Yup indeed, no matter what, the conversation must go on, lol. (maybe even if I do go blind I'll go get some cybernetic eyes like the stuff they have in Ghost in the Shell the moment the tech becomes a thing or something and the first thing I will do is come back here lol)

When I made this forum I just turned 17. I’ll be 30 in 21 days

Dahboo4 wrote:

When I made this forum I just turned 17.  I’ll be 30 in 21 days

Sometimes I feel the world I lived in when I was 15 (now 28) no longer exists lol (especially since a lot of friends I knew when I was 15 have moved on and family I cared about passed away).

But places like this still being around make me feel some of it still does.

By the way, happy birthday! (Soon, close enough, idk if it'll be your birthday when you'll read this lol)

I feel the exact same way.  It almost feels like a completely different world. I actually turn 30 in 3 days so I’m technically still in my 20s but not for long lol and thanks! Still can’t believe I won’t be in my 20s anymore

I’m officially 30!

Heh, alrighty then. :p

Now I wonder where I'll be 2 years from now. When I'm also not in my 20s, lol. Hopefully better than where I am now lol

Happy New Year!!! That also means that I created this forum 13 years ago today… that’s insane! I can’t believe it’s been 13 years. This forum literally is like a time capsule.

Yeah, they do tend to lead back. (Hehe, sorry for being slow on replying)

Ah, congrats with the Master's degree! I can imagine how much work that was.

Yeah, Cowboy Bebop's pretty good.

Game wise I have been rather busy mostly emulating games, though with a new computer now I'm delving into my Steam collection.

I've been meaning to watch Durarara for a while too. I remember people back on MKWii talking about it.

Spoiler:

Been meaning to pick of Vahalla. Ah yeah, friends are fans of Elden Ring (and I did have a chance to talk with someone that worked on it, they were especially happy after the GOTY stuff.)


Oh yeah, seeing Metal Gear memes again was great. Got a friend of mine to play it.

I have a few friends really into FF14 but I can't really get into MMOs myself.  (Ah Divinity, I have a few friends that play it.)

I tend to return to old games (or try new-old games more)...though gameplay can be a mixed bag.

Ichiban is a bright light in the sometimes cold world.

I could probably use cybernetics for my eyes to make sure things aren't blurry at night.  But yeh,  I hope whatever floaters stuff with your eyes works out.

---
Happy Birthday F-Zero! Sorry I ended up sorta missing it by a lot. Rather crazy that we all had our forum days in our teens and now we're all starting to reach that 30 year old status. Also Happy New Year ya'll (and Happy Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas)

Fzerowii wrote:

Happy New Year!!! That also means that I created this forum 13 years ago today… that’s insane! I can’t believe it’s been 13 years.  This forum literally is like a time capsule.

Yea I know right? 13 years and we're all still here. A lot of people I met 13 years ago I don't see anymore. But not us. We're all still here. I love it.

Blasar wrote:

Yeah, they do tend to lead back. (Hehe, sorry for being slow on replying)

Ah, congrats with the Master's degree! I can imagine how much work that was.

Yeah, Cowboy Bebop's pretty good.

Game wise I have been rather busy mostly emulating games, though with a new computer now I'm delving into my Steam collection.

I've been meaning to watch Durarara for a while too. I remember people back on MKWii talking about it.

Spoiler:

Been meaning to pick of Vahalla. Ah yeah, friends are fans of Elden Ring (and I did have a chance to talk with someone that worked on it, they were especially happy after the GOTY stuff.)


Oh yeah, seeing Metal Gear memes again was great. Got a friend of mine to play it.

I have a few friends really into FF14 but I can't really get into MMOs myself.  (Ah Divinity, I have a few friends that play it.)

I tend to return to old games (or try new-old games more)...though gameplay can be a mixed bag.

Ichiban is a bright light in the sometimes cold world.

I could probably use cybernetics for my eyes to make sure things aren't blurry at night.  But yeh,  I hope whatever floaters stuff with your eyes works out.

---
Happy Birthday F-Zero! Sorry I ended up sorta missing it by a lot. Rather crazy that we all had our forum days in our teens and now we're all starting to reach that 30 year old status. Also Happy New Year ya'll (and Happy Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas)

Spoiler:

And it's a good thing they do lead back I would say :p

Thanks, things could be better for me atm, but at least I know I finished my degree, lol. (my new goal in life is to lose weight, so far I lost like 30 lbs lol)

Oh you have a new PC now, nice nice. Now I can finally recommend you a whole bunch of games I played before that you can mostly only play on steam, lol.

I especially like the ending song of Cowboy Bebop lol. It fits my mood on a lot of days I feel.


>This is such a good song to play when you're upset. It doesn't lift your mood it just makes you accept your problems

Really hits the nail on the head on why I like the song so much I say, lol.

Spoiler:

You got to talk to a dev who worked on Elden Ring? Cool. If I ever got to talk to someone who worked on the game, I hope I could get to ask if there will be an Elden Ring 2, lol.

The Metal Gear memes seemed to finally simmer down after dominating the entire summer, lol. Thanks to the memes though we got a lot of new covers/remixes for the songs now. I love it.

Spoiler:

Well, like I mentioned, FF14 isn't that fun of a game. There isn't anything really to do except do 8 man raids (which also isn't fun). I'm surprised how so many people praised the game especially casual gamers when there is barely anything meaningful for casual gamers to do in that game lol.

I'd rather recommend everyone to go play Persona 5 instead if they haven't already. That game came out on steam so I finally got to play it after chilling to the music in it for so long lol. Both Persona 5 and Divinity are way more fun than FFXIV I would say, lol.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Oh right speaking of Ichiban, the Judgement games finally came out on PC, and those were fun too. I hadn't gotten too far in them cause I've been playing Persona 5 but I bet the rest of the game is good.

Wait it's also blurry for to you too when it's dark? Ouch. Well, good news for me is that turns out I'm not going blind after seeing a bunch of doctors. But the eye floaters are still there + new ones still show up for me. So now I wear computer glasses when I use the PC, and now hopefully it'll stop the eye floaters from getting worse, lol. I definitely wish cybernetics for eyes would come out and fix everything for me already for sure though.

Yea, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Years once again lol. And since I'm not sure if I'll be here on the exact day of our birthdays, happy birthdays to all of us in advance for 2023 too lol.